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Text Hollow Star and Luna Brynhild studied each other in silence for a few moments as Scrivener shifted uneasily nearby. The three were in the privacy of Luna's backyard: Antares and Twilight were both already in town, and there was no one around for miles except for them, and probably a few wandering Phooka. “A week has passed, Luna. Now let's see if you keep your word.” Hollow Star said softly, the metallic behemoth gleaming as her golden-fire mane wafted slowly around her features: but unlike usual, the unicorn had no metal covering her skeletal features, but it only served to make her somehow even more intimidating as she leaned down and almost demanded in a clear voice: “Release me from my bonds, and I will make my oath of loyalty to you willingly.” “Not yet.” Luna said calmly, and when Hollow Star began to grin callously, the sapphire mare glared up at her. “For one, thou arrived early, this is not the time I told thee to meet us here. For another, we are waiting for one last guest to arrive. Then I shall release thee.” “Oh, yes, I'm sure.” Hollow Star rolled her eyes, leaning back and looking distastefully over at Scrivener Blooms as the stallion awkwardly pawed at the ground with what was no longer a hoof, but now a gleaming claw. “I want his blood.” Scrivener looked up sourly, and when Luna looked pointedly down at the stallion's claw, he winced a little and glanced down, then closed it tightly... and flinched in pain even as it clicked loudly as it locked together. It felt strange, but now the claw looked almost exactly like a hoof with a few thin lines in it, and it was much more comfortable for Scrivener to walk on. The stallion couldn't help but wonder if – no, why lie, when – his other hoof was going to change a lot these days... sometimes, as a matter of fact, he thought that the process had begun already, but he hoped that was just paranoia. Hollow Star smiled as she drew her own eyes down to the claw, asking curiously: “Why hide what you are, Scrivener Blooms? But then again, I see that it's Luna who insists on it... did you ever stop and think she's ashamed of you? No, of course not, that's too easy: I think she's really ashamed of herself, for what she clearly is inside.” “Does thou have to become a horrendous bitch every time thou does not get thy way?” Luna asked in an exasperated voice, and Hollow Star only snorted before the winged unicorn muttered: “Now I understand all the better why Celestia was often so frustrated with me, however. But... there, obnoxious harpy, here arrives our guest.” Hollow Star frowned, then glanced sharply up as a firebird fluttered down and landed in Luna's mane, the sapphire mare slowly looking up with a horrible scowl as Burning Desire cleared his throat, flapping his wings and settling himself as he said awkwardly: “Hello there, uh... Morning Glory.” “Hollow Star.” the Destroyer enunciated slowly, and then she glared at him and added with disgust: “If you are still here when I am released from my bonds, I am going to slaughter you, no matter who you attempt to hide behind, Ardent Desire.” Burning laughed awkwardly at this, then leaned down and whispered nervously in Luna's ear: “This is a really bad idea. This is a really, really bad idea.” “Oh enough, both of thee, stupid idiot foals!” Luna shouted suddenly, and then she violently shook her head back and forth, Burning Desire clinging to it with a yelp before the firebird squealed as her mane exploded into blue flames and electricity, and the polymorphed demon wildly lunged free and zigzagged into the air as Hollow Star stepped forwards before she could stop herself. The firebird burst apart into flames in midair, then reformed into Burning Desire, who staggered awkwardly away from Luna before his eyes bulged as the sapphire mare said clearly: “Hollow Star, thou art released from servitude.” Hollow Star flinched as her eyes glowed... and then her white irises locked on Burning Desire, who stood like an animal frozen by a sudden blast of bright light. They stared at each other, before Hollow Star grinned coldly... then the Destroyer blinked in surprise as Luna strode past with a frustrated look on her face, Scrivener awkwardly hurrying after her as Burning Desire tried to make himself tiny and the Destroyer stared over her shoulder. “Wait, where are you going?” Hollow Star asked incredulously, and then she winced in surprise when Luna spun around on the patio and stormed back towards the steps. “Away from thee! I have had enough of this... constant mocking and whining and bickering, I fetched thee because thou wert supposed to be strong and an ample warrior... and oh sure, thou did well in the battle, but it does not change the fact that even if we were forced to resort to nefarious means, we bested thee.” Luna said contemptibly, her whole muzzle wrinkling up with the face of disgust she made. “And aye, thou wert excellent help against Kismet, but 'tis not like Celestia could not have done such a spell, and Twilight has already begun to learn that magic! “No, we worked so hard to get thee as a favor to Burning Desire, and because he claimed thou would be a mighty help. Well, thou art not a mighty help, thou art nothing but a whiny foal and a constant source of headache!” Luna glared at them both, then added sharply: “And thou, Burning Desire! We get thy sister, and thou says 'oh I shall make it up to her' and 'oh I shall fix things' and instead thou runs away to Subterra and dumps this mess upon my lap! Well, no, I say, no! So let me tell both of thee this: Burning Desire, deal with thy own problem, thou dug the grave, thou can lay in it for all I care. And thou, wretched, stupid witch... if thou wants freedom, take it, and may it bugger thee off into the sunset! Go away, thou art not needed, thou art not necessary, goodbye and fare thee well!” Luna spun on her heel, storming towards the open backdoor that Scrivener had already vanished through, and both demons stared disbelievingly as the sapphire mare strode inside and slammed the door violently. Then, once inside and safely out of sight, Luna covered her mouth to suppress her childish giggles as Scrivener scowled at her and muttered: “If this doesn't work, we're going to be cleaning up Burning Desire's remains for years, Luna. And Twilight and Celestia are both going to murder us.” The sapphire mare only huffed and waved a hoof, then turned and shoved the side of her head against the backdoor, trying to listen through it, as outside the two demons continued to simply sit and stare. And then Burning Desire blurted, before he could stop himself: “I don't think you're useless.” Hollow Star looked slowly over her shoulder at him, eying him coldly, and Burning Desire smiled faintly up at her before he lowered his head and rubbed a hoof slowly through his fiery mane, murmuring: “You always took care of me, after all... well... when we were... you know. Even though I know... things didn't go very well, I want you to know that... my favorite memories are still of us, being brother and sister like we had been when we were kids... since you always took care of me back then, too.” He stopped, then looked up and added finally: “And I've been a coward, she's right about that, too. After everything I said, I ran away and... you're my little sister, and I love you, and I said that... you had every right to beat me up and hurt me after what I did to you and... I'm... I'm going to live up to that promise now. I'm not going to run away, Morning Glory.” Hollow Star looked at him silently, and he looked back up, then said quietly: “Just know that I'm sorry, okay? About... everything.” He closed his eyes and bowed his head forwards, waiting silently for the blow... but then he felt a hoof settle gently on either shoulder, and he looked slowly up to see the Destroyer looking down at him quietly. Their eyes met, and they studied each other for the longest time before the mare finally said: “No resistance. No fight... no glory. Revenge against you is meaningless now... I get no pleasure from it, and I already destroyed Cupidus... I did it for both our sakes. You won't fight me, and the only thing I can enjoy is fighting. You stole that from me too, Ardent.” “That's as silly as me saying all I enjoy is sex because I'm a Lust demon.” Burning Desire smiled after a moment, reaching up to rub at his face silently before he awkwardly reached both forelegs up as far as he could, and Hollow Star winced as the smaller demon lamely attempted to hug her: but with how large she was, all he really managed t do was to cling to the front of her. “I love you. I'm gonna help take care of you now, like a big brother should.” “You can't even take care of yourself.” Hollow Star muttered, and then she pushed him firmly off before closing her eyes as her mane wafted down over her face, hiding her features from view for a moment. Then she cursed quietly and shook her head slowly before reaching up and brushing the curtain of golden flames away, and Burning Desire smiled radiantly as he gazed up at her: not at the thin, emaciated features of the witchlike Hollow Star, but the beautiful, confident face of his sister, Morning Glory. “Just... just don't get in my way. And stand up for yourself, you're a descendant of Duke Magister.” “Sir yes sir.” Burning Desire intoned wryly, and the Destroyer smacked him firmly enough to knock him over with a yelp, the Passion curling up slightly on the ground before the mare sighed tiredly, then turned moodily around and strode over the patio. She reached up and hammered firmly on the backdoor, and there was silence for a moment before it opened, Luna looking up... then staring in horror and throwing herself backwards, and the Destroyer blinked and winced before Luna pointed and shouted: “Put thy witch's face back on, terrible apparition! By all of Asgard, thou looks like a pink Celestia! Away, away with thee!” “Shut up!” the Destroyer snapped, and Luna winced a bit as Scrivener awkwardly poked his head in from the living room, before glowering over at the sapphire mare: she did look a little similar to Celestia, but Scrivener thought that was mostly because of her sheer size and fiery mane. And possibly the fact she's covered in metal. I'm too used to that on Celestia now, too. “Luna, I am honor-bound to offer my loyalty to you... freely. I am... I am Morning Glory. And I have made up with my brother, Ardent Desire.” “What, no, we didn't make out, that's why you went to Hell in the first place.” Burning Desire said dumbly, and without looking, Morning Glory kicked a rear hoof backwards and knocked him sprawling into the yard again with a yelp. “Sorry!” Luna looked meditatively at Morning Glory, studying her, slowly meeting the Destroyer's white eyes before the sapphire mare smiled after a moment and bowed her head forwards. “I am honored to accept thee as my charge, Morning Glory.” Morning Glory smiled, and for a few moments there was silence between them before the Destroyer paused and tilted her head, asking slowly as Luna grinned at her: “Wait... this was all set up, wasn't it? This was a trick.” Slowly, the Destroyer turned a baleful look on Burning Desire, who winced and held up his hooves as he babbled: “Hey, don't look at me, I had nothing to do with this! Nothing, nope, not a thing! It... I... I'm just as angry and offended as you are! And surprised too!” Luna snorted in amusement, and then she said cheerfully: “Aye, 'twas a trick, but fear not Morning Glory, thou art not the only victim. And I truly was sick and tired of hearing both of thee bicker. But I thought 'twas most likely thou just needed a push to finally be at peace with thy sibling, and 'tis a pleasure to see that I was right and will not have to scrape Burning Desire off the lawn. Well, watch Scrivy scrape Burning Desire up, I do not do the yardwork.” Morning Glory twitched a bit, glaring furiously at the winged unicorn, but Luna only winked and turned away, calling easily: “Come, we must head into Ponyville now, we have important business to attend to! Kvasir is meeting us at the library and 'twould be very rude to keep the administrator of Valhalla waiting.” “I'm going to kill you, Luna Brynhild. One day, I will kill you. And it will be a very happy day.” Morning Glory said disgustedly, and then there was a whoosh of flames behind her before she felt something land on her head, and the behemoth demon straightened slowly so her head almost brushed the underside of the staircase. “Ardent.” “What? We're siblings again!” Burning Desire said cheerfully from where he was sitting happily in her golden-fire mane in firebird form, the aureate flames wreathing harmlessly around him as he looked brightly down at her. “I'd carry you if you were a pretty little birdy, instead of the largest, most beautiful mare I've ever set my eyes upon!” Morning Glory was silent for a moment, moodily looking straight ahead, and then she suddenly stepped forwards and slammed her head as hard as possible into the wall above the doorway, crunching in the solid wood and leaving a whimpering Burning Desire hammered into the wall, twitching weakly as red feathers floated slowly down. The Destroyer carefully ducked inside and slipped through the kitchen, keeping herself hunched low with a grumble so she could pass through the house, and Scrivener looked awkwardly up from where he was packing things into a saddlebag to say carefully: “You know, uh... this was definitely all Luna's idea. She's the trickster here, not me.” “Coward. Why are all stallions cowards?” Morning Glory muttered, and then she glanced grumpily around at the pictures on the wall, studying both photographs and framed paintings as she asked: “Will we be leaving soon?” “Tonight or tomorrow, yeah, especially since Kvasir told us he detected another ping. He's not sure whether Thesis even know about the anchors or not, since he doesn't seem interested in them... but whatever he's doing, it's creating enough of a pulse to resonate with the anchors.” Scrivener said quietly, and then he smiled slightly and glanced up. “We just need to figure out if it's the same place you detected Kismet getting thrown back to, or somewhere else.” Morning Glory nodded slowly, and then she glanced moodily over her shoulder as Burning Desire strode in, giving his sibling a flat look before the fiery stallion asked quietly: “And I take it violet will be going with you and Luna and...” “Celestia, probably, maybe a few other people. We need to get all the information together first though, before we make any big decisions. That and Luna wants to make sure we get to do the brunt of the work ourselves.” Scrivener smiled slightly, and then he climbed to his hooves and glanced down at his locked claw, before saying awkwardly: “Excuse me. Gotta get on my armor.” “Wait.” Morning Glory said mildly, and the charcoal stallion glanced up curiously... and before he could react, a chain shot out of the Destroyer's back, twisting around and sinking painfully into the stallion's side, and his eyes bulged in shock before the chain twisted once, then ripped back and free. Scrivener staggered with a groan as Luna stumbled out of the bedroom down the hall with a snarl, half-dressed in her armor. Burning Desire was gaping up in horror at his sibling as withdrew the chain, studying the corruption coating the last inch or so thoughtfully before sticking this into her mouth. Her tongue twisted slowly around the links of the metal appendage, eyes glancing only mildly at Luna as the sapphire mare snapped: “What in Mimir's name art thou doing?” Scrivener rubbed moodily at the hole in his side, which was thankfully already healing, and then Morning Glory said mildly: “Helping myself to a small sample, that's all. I'd almost forgotten what his blood tasted like... and I want to keep it firmly in mind. Just in case I come across something else like him... I want to know if they taste the same, or whose is... better.” “Thou... thou art... thou art a witch!” Luna snapped, her eye twitching and mane sparking, and then she grumbled under her breath before turning around and saying moodily as she walked away: “Kvasir had best have good news. Otherwise I shall have to torment him until I feel better, and perhaps feed him to the witch so she ceases trying to eat my husband.” Top ↑